138 PLANARIA EDINENSIS. 



itself. The sudden appearance of an egg 

 always in the same stage, without my being 

 able to observe its progress, and seldom be- 

 ing capable of discovering it when deposited, 

 induced me to suspect that it might possi- 

 bly be taken up into some pouch or cavity 

 by the neighbouring aperture. But this pro- 

 ved an erroneous conjecture; for the eggs, 

 amounting to six or more, are successively 

 produced at certain intervals ; and notwith- 

 standing their sudden attainment of matu- 

 rity, and one only being visible at a time, 

 they are sometimes to be observed previous 

 to coloration, of an opaque white. Proba- 

 bly they successively ascend towards the 

 head, in conformity with those of the pla- 

 naria graminea, rising from an ovarium 

 somewhere in the side. 



The egg is void of any viscosity, unlike 

 that of the black planaria, which I have 

 seen floating at the surface of the water, 

 imbedded in a lump of transparent jelly: it 

 has a hard shell, and is perfectly globular. 

 Most minute objects, however beautiful and 



